Israel rejected Palestinian peace bid

Crispian Balmer and Tom Perry in Jerusalem

Palestinian negotiators secretly told Israel it could keep vast swathes of occupied East Jerusalem, according to leaked documents that show Palestinians offering much bigger concessions than previously revealed.

Palestinian negotiators secretly told Israel it could keep vast swathes of occupied East Jerusalem, according to leaked documents that show Palestinians offering much bigger concessions than previously revealed.

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Israel rejected Palestinian peace bid

Independent.ie

Palestinian negotiators secretly told Israel it could keep vast swathes of occupied East Jerusalem, according to leaked documents that show Palestinians offering much bigger concessions than previously revealed.

The documents, obtained by the Al Jazeera television channel, could undermine the position of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose public declarations about Jerusalem are at odds with what his officials were promising in private.

Equally sobering for the Palestinian people, who want to create a state on land Israel seized in a 1967 war, is the fact that Israel offered nothing in return for the concessions and turned down the offer, saying it did not go far enough.

The leaked minutes of a 2008 meeting between Palestinian, US and Israeli officials showed a senior Palestinian proposing that Israel annex all but one of its major Jerusalem settlements as part of a broad deal to end their decades-old conflict.

Al Jazeera said it had other documents that show the Palestinians were also ready to make other massive concessions on the hugely sensitive issue of the right to return for Palestinian refugees.

"This exposes the Palestinian leadership, putting it in a position where it will be impossible to win the confidence of the people," said Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian commentator.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat dismissed the documents as "a bunch of lies" during an appearance on Al Jazeera shortly after the documents were released.

In a heated exchange on Al Jazeera, Mr Erekat was confronted by critics including Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based 'al-Quds al-Arabi' newspaper, who asked him who had authorised him or the Palestinian leadership "to give up Islamic holy sites".

Ahmed Qurie, the lead Palestinian negotiator in 2008, proposed that Israel annex all Jewish settlements in Jerusalem except Har Homa. He also said Israel could keep control of a part of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Proposition

"This is the first time in history that we make such a proposition," the document quoted Ahmed Qurie as saying.

He added that the Palestinians had refused to make such a concession during negotiations led by the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in 2000.

Israel has always said it would keep the main settlement blocs around Jerusalem, but the Palestinian leadership has adopted a tougher stance in its public declarations, never letting on it was ready to make such ground.

Mr Abbas said as recently as last week the fate of Jerusalem was not up for discussion. "From our perspective, there are no negotiations over Jerusalem. Jerusalem is ours," he said.

However, he has also made clear that West Jerusalem was Israeli and could be the capital of the Jewish State.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war, annexing the walled Old City and a belt of surrounding West Bank land shortly after the conflict in a move that has never won international recognition. Both sides want Jerusalem as their capital.

The 2008 transcript was one of some 1,600 documents related to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that the Qatar-based channel said it had obtained from a variety of sources.

Britain's 'Guardian' newspaper had early access to the documents and said it had verified most of them.

The peace talks are at a standstill due to a dispute over Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, with the Palestinians refusing to return to the negotiating table until Israel halts the building programmes.